In the Life: Ep. 2112, "The Truth Comes Out"

[Announcer] "In the Life" is funded in part by: the H. van Ameringen Foundation; Arcus Foundation; the Estate of Richard W. Weiland; Gill Foundation; and by these funders; and by the annual support of In the Life members, like you. [Chanting] Workers' Rights! Workers' Rights! [Host] Tonight on "In the Life", the critical alliance between labor unions and the LGBT movement in Wisconsin. Unions fight for everyone, including lesbians and gays. [Jacqueline Lindo] I have the benefit of having domestic partnership benefits because of the union. [Host] And to how LGBT rights are threatened by the attack on collective bargaining. [Chris Larson] Walker going after collective bargaining rights and saying it was a budget issue, I mean, it was a farce. We have both an economic and fiscal crisis in the state. [Man in foreground] This is a violation of law! My biggest fear is that now the LGBT community is gonna have this bullseye on our back. [Host] Then later, we go into the world of reparative therapy to discover the truth about ex-gay ministries. But the truth is, God, God has designed, designed our eyes to be attracted to the woman's, to the woman's body. The therapist continually said that it was possible to completely change from gay to straight. A clinic that believes that homosexuality is a sin and can be changed, is engaging in culture war practices. ["In the Life" theme music] [Voice] We brought everybody together. Act Up! [Chanting] Healthcare is a right! [Voice] And we're married! [Voice] There was nothing for me to hide. Make a promise! ["In the Life" theme music] [Host] On February 11th, 2011, Governor Scott Walker  introduced a state budget repair bill also known as Act 10 to address the budget deficit in the state of Wisconsin. [Scott Walker] We have both an economic and fiscal crisis in the state. [Host] Walker's plan would strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from teachers as well as many state and local employees. This is an unprecedented extreme attack on basic worker rights the likes of which we have never seen. [Host] Although exempt from the bill, most police, firefighters, and state troopers stood in solidarity with the protesters. We've said we'll pay for our pensions. We've said that we'll pay for our health insurance. But we will not give up our rights. It's a scam! It's a farce. [Host] In protest against Governor Walker's budget repair bill, widespread demonstrations at the State Capitol lasted for months. This created immediate LGBT concerns for protection of partnership benefits and workers' rights. [Woman] I went to Madison to protest Governor Walker's attack on union workers. I'm married to a union worker. I come from a union household and found his attack on working families just unconscionable. [Laurie Marks] It really did feel like public employees were demonized through this process. I've been a state employee for over 10 years and I've never felt the way I did since this has happened. [Host] Historically, Wisconsin has been a progressive state with deep labor union roots. In 1959, it was the first state to extend collective bargaining rights to the public sector, and is the birthplace of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. [Gregory Floyd] Collective bargaining rights are rights that we bargained for as unions for all of our members collectively. And collective bargaining started actually in the state of Wisconsin. [Host] Often taking a lead for their lesbian and gay members, public sector unions negotiated domestic partner benefits into contracts when elected officials were too timid to act The unions often took the lead in terms of ensuring  access to equal benefits for LGBT people. [Neil Albrecht] In the city of Milwaukee when we were working to establish domestic partner benefits for city employees, it was the city union that really  championed working with the union members, working with the city of Milwaukee, working with the mayor to ensure the availability of domestic partner benefits for city employees. [Host] But under Act 10, unions would no longer be able to negotiate for domestic partnership benefits. [Katie Belanger] A government that's willing to take away the rights of any of its citizens is a government that's willing to take away the rights of anyone else. And we felt it was very important that we stand up against Governor Walker and his attempts to strip collective bargaining rights from workers. Our rights for our workers are not guaranteed by collective bargaining, they're guaranteed by something that passed more than a century ago and that is the civil service system of the state that's the strongest in the country. [Host] On February 17th, 2011, just six days after Governor Walker introduced the budget repair bill, the State Senate was set to vote on the anti-union measure. [Chanting] [Host] In an effort to stop the vote from passing so quickly, 14 Democratic senators fled the state to prevent the quorum necessary for a vote on the bill. [Chris Larson] We saw the writing on the wall. We saw how fast they were trying to move this with a hearing and we wanted to make sure that people had more time. That meant that we had to not be in the chambers. So we knew that we'd have to go and we knew that we'd have to go out of state. [Newscaster] All the Democrats from the State Senate got on the same bus and have left the state. [Host] The Wisconsin 14 stayed in hiding for three weeks in Illinois, giving the public more time to examine the budget repair bill. This motivated tens of thousands of people to march on the capitol in protest. [Jacqueline Lindo] I've the benefit of having domestic partnership benefits because of the Union, so I wanted to stand up for my wife and I want to live in a place where everyone's respected. And unions give that opportunity. [Lori Sieckrt] We decided, "Oh, we got  to do this, we got to be a part of this." We made it a day trip with River and Violet. Violet was three months old at the time, so we just bundled her up, brought her along. [Laurie Marks] In a lot of ways, really surreal to see how people came together and responded to the budget repair bill in terms of protests in Madison. [Host] After failed attempts to persuade the 14 Democrats to return, including withholding their paychecks, Senate Republicans decided to separate the collective bargaining measure from the budget repair bill and vote on it immediately. This proposal would not trigger the special quorum requirement. [Man in foreground] Chairman! This is a violation of law! This is not just a rule, it is the law! [Chairman] ...42. Adjourned. [Man] No, Mr. Chairman this is a violation of an open meetings' law. [Host] And on March 10th, 2011, the Wisconsin Assembly passed a collective bargaining measure without the required 24-hour public notice as Assembly Democrats shouted "shame". [crowd chanting] Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! [JoCasta Zamarripa] Because they rolled the vote in the assembly so quickly that a lot of legislators weren't in their seats, 28 legislators didn't ever get a chance to even vote on Act 10. I never got to cast my vote for my district on, on one of the most controversial pieces of legislation that I'll probably ever see in my lifetime. And so that's why it was very difficult to, in that instant, lose my right to vote essentially. I just, I will never forget it. [Host] Walker signed his budget repair bill known as Act 10 into law on March 11th 2011. [Walker] You don't have to have massive tax increases on the middle class, and you don't have to have massive layoffs to balance a budget. [Host] In response to the passage of Act 10, over 30,000 volunteers collected nearly 1 million signatures to trigger a recall election against Governor Walker and six Republican state senators. [Marks] The biggest issue for us as a couple, where we're both public employees is that it was so much, so suddenly. All of a sudden our pay went down by, you know, three, four hundred dollars a month. It really impacted us because, you know, it was at the most difficult  time financially for us 'cause we had two very small kids in daycare. And it almost made more sense for Lori not to work. At one point her paycheck was actually less than our monthly daycare bill. [Tina Owen] With the new changes that are coming out because of Act 10 next year I'm expecting to pay another $400 a month in pension and health care benefits, and I'm terrified I'm gonna be working 80, 90 hours a week to bring home less than 30,000 a year. [Host] Tina Owens co-founded the Alliance School in 2005. It was the first school in the nation that started  with the mission of addressing bullying and providing a safe environment for all students. Alliance has made national headlines for being a model school for acceptance of LGBT students. Under Act 10, teachers are among those hardest hit, with their salaries expected to be slashed. We are a Milwaukee public school and part of the union. [Owen] The political situation in the past couple years has been terrible. The budget cuts have been devastating. First we had to give up our yellow bus transportation and our students had to start riding the city bus. [Owen] It's so hard for our kids.  It makes them targets out there. On top of that, we as teachers in the school are facing really harsh cuts to our own salaries and benefits. I don't know. I hope that there's a way that I can keep doing what I do. I just... I hope that something will change. [Host] After months of grassroots efforts to recall Governor Scott Walker, Wisconsinites went to the polls on June 5th, 2012. In the most expensive recall election in American history, Scott Walker defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. [cheering] [Host] Walker's campaign outraised Barrett by 31 million to four million dollars with significant money from out-of-state billionaires. [Walker] Today we tell Wisconsin, we tell our country, and we tell people all across the globe that voters really do want leaders who stand up and make the tough decisions. [cheering] [Floyd] Governor Walker stripped away the collective bargaining rights because that was his covenant to people who supported him. Governor Walker's party outspent everyone else 8 to 1. And in politics, if you have money, the rule of thumb is you generally win the election. [Larson] Private union membership has dwindled for the last 30 years. Public union membership had remained strong and so I think they saw that as their biggest threat to just having political power. So Walker going after collective bargaining rights and saying it was a budget issue, I mean, it was a farce. It, it had nothing to do with the budget, you know. And if you're looking for proof of that, exactly a year after he pushed the budget repair bill, the state of Wisconsin had a bigger deficit. A bigger  deficit, mind you, caused by him and his policies. [Host] As Scott Walker's victory reverberated across the nation, LGBT groups in Wisconsin contemplated what it meant for their community. [Albrecht] I think the fact that he was reelected is a physical blow to a lot of people particularly and including LGBT people. [Belanger] This was about undermining the entire progressive movement in Wisconsin because labor unions have long been the, the cornerstone of the work that all of our organizations, whether it's LGBT, or the environment, or choice, or workers' rights, have really been based on and funded by. My biggest fear is that now the LGBT community is going to have this bullseye on our back. [Jason Burns] Right now Democrats are lucky enough to have control of the State Senate. And if we lose that control in the Fall, it wouldn't be far-fetched to see a law introduced that would repeal the domestic partnership. We could really be in a lot of trouble with, with losing our registry. [Host] Although Wisconsin has a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the state passed a domestic partnership registry in 2009. Governor Walker has stated that the registry is unconstitutional and has directed the state not to defend the law. It's incredibly disappointing and frustrating that Governor Walker does not believe that the critical protections that the domestic partnership registry provides  to same-sex couples is worth defending. You know, these are protections like hospital visitation and Family Medical Leave. The domestic partner registry was really a first step both in the city of Milwaukee and in the state of Wisconsin toward encouraging equal access to benefits for same-sex couples. We were able to pass a domestic partnership law and we were the first state that had a constitutional amendment that went and did something positive after that. So we have about 43 of the rights and responsibilities that are afforded a marriage. But there's 211 in Wisconsin so we've got a long ways to go. [Host] State Assemblyman Mark Pocan is running this Fall to represent Wisconsin in the U.S. Congress. [Mark Pocan] This is my 19th year in government. So, I've been on local government. I've been in state government and I think it's real important to have a seat at the table where you can really help make decisions happen. They always say if you're not at the table, you're probably what's being served. [Host] The LGBT community is hopeful that out politicians like Pocan and Tammy Baldwin, who is running for U.S. Senate, will make a difference. [Belanger] I think Tammy Baldwin and Mark Pocan's campaigns for federal office are absolutely critical in Wisconsin and for the LGBT community. [Belanger] Wisconsin's state motto is "Forward." Although we lost the election, that's only a part of the long battle. The movement is going to continue and that one election is not going to define our state and it's not going to define our people. And we're going to continue moving our state forward. [Zamarripa] In a post- Act 10 world, where the collective bargaining rights of public workers were taken away here in Wisconsin, it's a very scary thing. What LGBT workers need to do now is continue to be advocates for themselves and for their families. One of the hopes that I have is that as we do move forward there needs to be more progressive leadership in our state. [Owen] It's changing people's hearts and minds. With the kids, with the teachers. Just come and spend a couple of days with us. Because it's not what you're seeing on the news. [Albrecht] In the LGBT community there is this belief that we don't want to leave our cities, we don't want to leave the state. Instead we want this to be an environment that makes us feel welcome and that future generations will celebrate a greater  level of equality than what we have experienced. [music] [video static] [John Becker] My name is John Becker. I work for Truth Wins Out. Truth Wins Out is an organization that monitors anti-LGBT religious extremism and the ex-gay industry, the people who say you can pray away the gay. [Man on camera] But the truth is God, God has designed, designed  our eyes to be attracted to the woman's, the woman's body, to be attracted to her breasts. [quiet music] [Host] John Becker is an activist who investigates anti-gay religious extremists. "In the Life" caught up with him recently to find out about his work. [Becker] I was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I'm really passionate about fighting back against anti-gay religious extremism because I was internalizing a lot of anti-gay propaganda from a very young age. I was also raised in the Catholic Church which is a notoriously anti-gay institution. As a Catholic I delved into the lives of the saints to try to figure out what I could do to, to rid myself of the scourge of homosexuality. I discovered a practice called corporal mortification which essentially involves inflicting pain on yourself in order to atone for your sins. So I, I took a razor from my dad's workshop and I cut crosses into both quadriceps on both legs, and into the heel of each foot so that every step I took I would be reminded of my sin. I, I myself tried everything I could think of up to and including attempting suicide to try to get rid of my homosexuality. And it took that suicide attempt, that failed suicide attempt for me to finally realize that if I had done all of these things and I was still gay, it was a part of me in the first place. [Host] After coming to accept his sexual orientation, John met his husband Michael, and they became a spokes-couple for LGBT rights in Wisconsin. In 2011, they met Wayne Besen, the founder of Truth Wins Out. [Wayne Besen] Truth Wins Out does two things. We go after the ex-gay industry and we also have what we call our Center Against Radical Extremism, where we expose the charlatans on the religious right. [Host] Truth Wins Out monitors the ex-gay movement which is based on the idea that through prayer and hard work a person can change from gay to straight. There is an ideology to homosexuality and therefore it can be changed. In God's creative intent that he did not mean for me to be homosexual. [Host ] The ex-gay movement took off in the 1970s with the founding of groups like Love in Action and Exodus International. [Michael Busse] The year after the first Exodus conference in 1976 we began getting hundreds, thousands of letters. Gay and lesbian folks from all over the country and outside the country that had heard about us somehow. [Host] But even as the ex-gay movement rose in prominence, questions were being raised about the scientific basis for reparative therapy. If there are doctors who are treating homosexuality as if it were a mental disorder, they're all practicing outside the mainstream. [Host] Despite strong scientific objections, reparative therapy is still practiced. In 2011, when John and Wayne met, reparative therapy was thrust into the news with the presidential run of Michele Bachmann. She along with her husband Marcus own a therapy clinic in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. [Becker] There had long been rumors swirling around the clinic that she and her husband Marcus co-owned, Bachmann & Associates. And those rumors had said that this clinic offered so-called ex-gay therapy. Therapy that claimed they could help people pray away the gay. I was beginning to get calls from news reporters asking if we knew about Marcus Bachmann's reparative therapy. Nobody really had a lot of information on it, there was nothing concrete. [Besen] I wanted to see whether it was true or not, and so we came up with this plan. And we sent John in. [Host] Armed with two hidden cameras, one in his bag, and another in his watch, and an audio recorder, John scheduled an appointment with Bachmann & Associates. [Becker] Preparing to go undercover  was a rather intense process. I had to conjure up the memories and the emotions that I went through as a self-loathing young gay man. [Host] Over the course of five therapy sessions, John's therapist did what the American Psychiatric Association and numerous medical authorities have warned against, he offered John the possibility of changing from gay to straight. [Becker] The therapist continually said that it was possible to completely change from gay to straight. [Becker on camera] Do you think it's possible for people to, to fully be free of those attractions or do you think those will always be there? Or? [Therapist] I think it's possible to be totally free of them. [Becker] Okay. [Therapist] For sure. [Becker] That's one, hah. [Therapist] I for sure do, yep. Yep, yep. So, and it's happened. One of his central points in my, in his treatment plan  for me, for my homosexuality, was that I needed to get a heterosexual male accountability buddy. [Therapist] It would make sense to have - do the group and then maybe like a specific accountability part be like a heterosexual guy. [Becker] Every time I felt tempted to act out my homosexual urges I needed to call this accountability buddy. [Becker] So I needed to remove myself from the temptation and read scripture with him and pray with him. Homosexuality was portrayed as unnatural, something that needed to be fixed. [Therapist] Like we're all heterosexuals, but we, we have different challenges. [Becker] So "pray away the gay" isn't just a slick slogan, it represents the truth of what a lot of these ex-gay programs do. [Therapist] Lord thank you for the time that we've gathered, the time that we've talked. [Becker] In fact one of the most dangerous things about these ex-gay organizations, is that their claim is that THEY don't change you,  they don't cure you, God does. It's the perfect scam because when it fails as it inevitably will, 'cause the change won't happen, they're not - it's not them that's at fault, God didn't change you. So, you didn't, you didn't pray hard enough, you didn't work hard enough. That's really what sets a lot of these people up for anxiety, depression, and suicide. [Host] Major news organizations from The New York Times  to ABC News picked up the story about Bachmann's clinics. [Jack Drescher] John Becker's visit to Marcus Bachmann's clinic made national news, I think because the culture wars are such an integral part of the presidential election right now. [Drescher] A clinic that believes that homosexuality is a sin and can be changed, is engaging in cultural war practices. They're not really doing therapy, they're just living according to a philosophy that ignores science, that ignores the reality of homosexuality, of sexuality in general. [Host] An unexpected development in the culture wars happened this past June during Exodus International's annual Freedom Conference held at a conservative Christian college. Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, created a rift in the ex-gay movement when he had this to say about reparative therapy: [Alan Chambers] In recent weeks, we have distanced ourselves from what's called reparative therapy. [Besen] There's an enormous amount of anger from former clients of Exodus International who wasted years if not decades of their lives. Thousands if not tens of thousands  of dollars pursuing a mirage. And suddenly after all of that work and money, Exodus throws up their hands and goes, "Psych! Whoops, we're just kidding." [Chambers] At Exodus we have promoted and been closely linked to all sorts of methods and things that we're reconsidering. [Becker] Exodus International claims now to have shifted their strategic goals from switching from changing sexual orientation to modifying behavior. The press reported on that as though this were a sea change in, in Exodus International, that they had abandoned their pursuit of LGBT people, when in reality, the group still believes firmly that homosexuality is sinful and broken. [Becker] It's just a slight change in messaging versus a change of heart. Well let me tell you what I think about change. I think it is possible for anybody who has a relationship with Jesus Christ... change is possible. [applause] [Drescher] How do you make sense of what sound like the contradictory messages of groups like Exodus International? Sometimes they say, "People can change," then sometimes they say, "Well, people can't really change their sexual orientation, but they can change the way they behave." If you're going to live as an ex-gay, and you're still attracted to people of your own sex, it's very likely that you're going to have to live with contradictory messages that are inside you. [Host] Earlier this year, noted psychiatrist Robert Spitzer apologized for a study he conducted in 2001, which the ex-gay movement used to support their practices. I had no way really of knowing when I examined any particular subject whether they really had changed or whether they were deceiving themselves, or even outright lying, when they claimed that they had changed. [Besen] It's good to see that Robert Spitzer finally agreed with our assessment and said, "Yeah, my study is invalid. I'm no longer standing by it and I want the religious right to stop using it, stop distorting my work and misleading people." I should also say to the gay community, that I  apologize for any harm I have done to them. [gentle music] [Becker] So right now we're headed on I-94 headed towards Lake Elmo, Minnesota where Marcus Bachmann's main office for Bachmann &  Associates, his Christian counseling clinic is located. And this is, this is the place  where I went to get my ex-gay therapy. [gentle music] It's this little business park right here. [gentle music] Right here on the right. Right there. That's the, that's the place where it happened. That's Bachmann & Associates. It is kind of surreal to be back here. Brings back the memories of what I went through in those sessions. If I could deliver a message to the young person that I brought into the Bachmann clinic, my younger version of myself, I'd tell him that that there's nothing wrong with him. That's who he's supposed to be. He was made that way. That one day he'd [choking up], he'd find the person he wants to spend his life with. Life is beautiful and life is beautiful just as you are. That's what I would tell him. [Host] Thank you for watching "In the Life". Visit our website at itlmedia.org to comment on the show, and to join us for a special online discussion about the intersection between the labor movement and the LGBT movement. [Child] Hi! Hi! [Marks] We need the same support that all families have. We care about where our kids go to school. We want  them to live in a community that really values education. We want good health care for our kids.   These are all just regular things. That's the role of the government, to help families to ensure that they have those things. Now you go to work every day and you work hard and you just want people to support your family. [Child laughing] [Announcer] "In the Life" is funded in part by: the H. van Ameringen Foundation; Arcus Foundation; the Estate of Richard W. Weiland; Gill Foundation; and by these funders; and by the annual support of In the Life members, like you. [logo music]